10:33 pm
1 hour and 44 minutes before
Amelia and Gracie had once been very close.
As children, they'd played games together, dressed alike, and enrolled in all the same after school and summer camp activities.
And then, somewhere between all of the etiquette classes and punishments for back talking, they grew apart.
Gracie had been nine, when she'd first noticed her sister's coolness toward other people.
Until that point, Gracie had seen Amelia as an angel. She'd had an ethereal beauty, even at such a young age. Delicate features combined with pale blonde hair further proved Gracie's idea.
Logically, Gracie knew that they looked alike. But realistically, she knew that her sister far more akin to an angelic being than she was, and that was why Gracie looked up to her.
But then Amelia had shoved that boy, and Gracie had realized that her sister was no more an angel than she was.
Amelia had been climbing a tree with a few other kids, and Gracie had been struggling to get her foot onto the next highest branch, her path blocked by a Tanner, a boy from down the street.
Gracie watched as her sister climbed higher and higher, almost ascending into the sky, and she called out to her, afraid that she'd be left on the ground.
Amelia had turned to look at her younger sister, and she'd seen the irritation in her eyes. Gracie had been getting looks of irritation her whole life. She was smaller than most people, only a fraction of an inch shorter than her sister, but she was very frail. Always the last person to finish running in gym, quick to cry, and never able to grasp complicated concepts.
Her sister moved down a branch and reached out an arm, and Gracie started to reach for her hand, feeling her legs shake from the effort of holding herself up.
And then Amelia had shoved the boy hard, and Gracie's eyes had widened as he toppled from the tree and landed with an oomf a few feet below.
"Lia!" Gracie said in shock.
"He was in your way," Amelia said, holding out her hand again, this time in Gracie's direction. "Come on, climb up."
Shakily, Gracie accepted her sister's help, wrapping her fingers around her slim wrists.
"Lia, you could have hurt him." Gracie said, her small voice trembling.
"But he was in the way. You have to fight for what you want, Gracie. You can't be so weak all the time."
"You can't just push people!"
"Relax, he's fine, see?"
Gracie could see, but it wasn't that Tanner was fine. She could see that she and her sister were very different indeed.
YOU ARE READING
saving gracie | ✓
Short StoryAmelia Sinclair was never well-liked, but she was an amazing student. She was on track to become valedictorian and was being groomed to take over her father's company one day. Most of her time was split between the library, tennis lessons, and her m...
